Such were the times then, in the 1980s and 1990s, when railways in Odisha symbolised utter neglect of the State by the Centre. Railways, undoubtedly, happen to be the moving image of the Central Government. Complaints and grouses of the State would fall on deaf ears at the Centre and a painfully inefficient and ineffective State leadership, spanning various parties, would not even get a lollipop of a railway project for the State. Whatever would be sanctioned as part of the “trickle-drop” theory would be left sanctioned on paper only.
However, 2003 was a watershed year for railways in Odisha with a railway zone getting operational and functional at Bhubaneswar. Hopes soared. Expectations went high. But disappointments came more often than not for the East Coast Railway as the political railway bosses in Delhi were more interested in pandering to the interests of their own fiefdoms in their respective States rather than having a Pan-India perspective.
Railways in Odisha ailed for a long time all through the first decade of this century too as it became a prey to the lustful senses of the compulsions of coalition politics. States like Odisha were forced to satisfy themselves with an occasional new train, a few survey proposals and promises of workshops and factories which today remain stillborn. Such being the state of affairs till very recently, the State is seeing a large number of projects getting fructified in the last few months. This is music to our ears and is definitely welcome news. Every few weeks, we are able to see one or the other new project being inaugurated and commissioned in Odisha, which was not happening earlier. We had many a plaque being dedicated to the opening of a project in the last few decades but hardly any significant output barring the Sambalpur-Talcher line. A deeper analysis and collection of data in this regard indicate that a lot of focussed managerial input has gone into the projects recently commissioned. The political as well as the bureaucratic leaderships of the Railways at the Centre have finally realised that unless due input into the railway infrastructure is given for a State like Odisha, a lot of vital developmental links will remain unconnected. And this is this focus that was missing earlier.
No large-scale industrial project can survive without dependence on ports and railways. Port connectivity to the hinterland can only be given by railways. Hence, the present dispensation at the Centre and the various corporate and industrial honchos have given their full focus on rail connectivity. Odisha being rich in minerals, such resources had to be very much in the frame of things. Further, because of its geographical location as well as its proximity to ports, it being the base for a number of steel and other major industrial plants and the State being the destination of call for a large number of potential investors, crucial railway projects lying buried in various stages of part-completion were resurrected and life breathed into them. Whether due to a benign and benevolent political dispensation or due to default of being a beneficiary of circumstances, railway progress in Odisha is now on track. And, seemingly, the Railway Minister gets the maximum kudos for this!
When Suresh Prabhu was brought into the Union Cabinet in a reshuffle, he brought with him in advance a huge list of expectations and an image of the emergency doctor for a critically-ill patient. His maiden budget was very different from the standard dose given by his predecessors: No new trains, no new projects; emphasis on completion of pending projects. Thrust on infrastructure building, stress on capacity augmentation. focus on connectivity to unconnected areas. He was probably the emergency doctor that Odisha too wanted. Wittingly or otherwise, Odisha has gained the most in the new dispensation. Besides the large numbers of projects completed or about to be completed (See box), he has been credited with providing the maximum funds ever (`4,000 + crore) to Odisha in any Rail Budget.
The mood in the ECoR offices is no longer the same as focussed project management is the mantra for them now. Added to all this are the various MoUs signed and the PPPs sanctioned for this region. The next five to six years will see many a rail project coming alive. The fast pace of developments on the Khurda Road-Bolangir line is an indicator of things that are in store for the future. With large-scale delegation of powers to assign and finalise tenders at the zonal levels, Railway’s model of project management will definitely be worth emulating for other Central/State Governments/PSUs.